History
"Norton" means 'north enclosure' from the Old English, while the use of its forename to distinguish it from other 'Nortons' is of late origin and not mentioned until 1334. Sources point to the town being situated midway between two branches of the Somer river; the Somer itself and Wellow Brook, which joins the Somer a short distance to the east near Radstock.
Eilert Ekwall wrote that the village "is said to be so called in allusion to the festival held at midsummer on the day of St. John, the patron saint."
John Wesley wrote of the appalling local road conditions which ensured it was reachable "only in midsummer." As Simon Winchester notes in his book The Map that Changed the World, "...the roads on this part of Somerset were atrocious, thick with mud and as rough as the surface of the moon".
In some church records the town is referred to as 'Norton Canonicorum' as an alternative to Midsomer Norton, and this may be because of the local Priory's link to Merton Priory in London until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1546.
The parish was part of the hundred of Chewton.
Following the Norman Conquest William the Conqueror gave large parts of north Somerset, including the manor or Norton to Geoffrey de Montbray, bishop of Coutances, and Norton was held under him by Ulveva. From about 1150 until 1300 the manor was held by Alured de Lincoln. From 1387 the manor was held by the family of Thomas West, 1st Baron West and his descendants.
The Duchy of Cornwall owned most of the mineral rights around Midsomer Norton and various small pits opened around 1750 to exploit these. Coal mining in the Somerset coalfield gave the town and area its impetus as an industrial centre.
Around 1866 an obelisk monument with two marble plaques, was built at the site of St Chad's well, by mother of Frederick Stukeley Savage for the benefit of the poor. The obelisk was in the grounds of Norton House, however the house has since been demolished.
Read more about this topic: Midsomer Norton
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“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
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